Srilanka, Feb. 9 -- Eliminating corruption particularly in the public sector, the root cause of economic stagnation in the country, by any means must be done if the country is to be out of the woods, said a public policy advocate and scientist.

"Given that we're looking at a fiscal deficit of over Rs 1 trillion this year, and given the IMF's restrictions on new borrowing, there's very little the Government can do to stimulate the economy: no new infrastructure, new capital investment, and so on. But still, there's a lot that can actually be done even without money," said a bio-diversity scientist, author and public policy advocate, Rohan Pethiyagoda.

First off, he said the Government must address corruption. Although the cabinet itself...